Leaving This Sketch Of The Chief, I Proceed To Give An Equally Rapid One
Of Our Dealing With His People,
The Bakena, or Bakwains.
A small piece of land, sufficient for a garden, was purchased
when we first went to
Live with them, though that was scarcely necessary
in a country where the idea of buying land was quite new.
It was expected that a request for a suitable spot would have been made,
and that we should have proceeded to occupy it as any other
member of the tribe would. But we explained to them that we wished to avoid
any cause of future dispute when land had become more valuable;
or when a foolish chief began to reign, and we had erected
large or expensive buildings, he might wish to claim the whole.
These reasons were considered satisfactory. About 5 Pounds worth of goods
were given for a piece of land, and an arrangement was come to
that a similar piece should be allotted to any other missionary,
at any other place to which the tribe might remove.
The particulars of the sale sounded strangely in the ears of the tribe,
but were nevertheless readily agreed to.
In our relations with this people we were simply strangers
exercising no authority or control whatever. Our influence depended
entirely on persuasion; and having taught them by kind conversation
as well as by public instruction, I expected them to do what
their own sense of right and wrong dictated. We never wished them to do right
merely because it would be pleasing to us, nor thought ourselves to blame
when they did wrong, although we were quite aware of the absurd idea
to that effect. We saw that our teaching did good to the general mind
of the people by bringing new and better motives into play. Five instances
are positively known to me in which, by our influence on public opinion,
war was prevented; and where, in individual cases, we failed,
the people did no worse than they did before we came into the country.
In general they were slow, like all the African people
hereafter to be described, in coming to a decision on religious subjects;
but in questions affecting their worldly affairs they were keenly alive
to their own interests. They might be called stupid in matters
which had not come within the sphere of their observation,
but in other things they showed more intelligence than is to be met with
in our own uneducated peasantry. They are remarkably accurate
in their knowledge of cattle, sheep, and goats, knowing exactly
the kind of pasturage suited to each; and they select with great judgment
the varieties of soil best suited to different kinds of grain.
They are also familiar with the habits of wild animals, and in general
are well up in the maxims which embody their ideas of political wisdom.
The place where we first settled with the Bakwains is called Chonuane,
and it happened to be visited, during the first year of our residence there,
by one of those droughts which occur from time to time
in even the most favored districts of Africa.
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